San Juan –  English will gradually replace  Spanish as the language taught in Puerto Rico's public schools under a 10-year  plan due to enter into force later this summer, Education Secretary Edward  Moreno Alonso told Efe Friday.

The plan will start to be implemented in August at 31 schools, where children  aged 5-9 will have all of their subjects in English with the exception of  Spanish and History.

In 35 other schools, students will begin to be taught a certain amount of  subjects in English depending on their teachers' ability to make the  transition.

The goal is for the program to be extended to all 860 schools in Puerto  Rico's public school system within a period of 10 years, according to Moreno  Alonso, who said the increased emphasis on English is in response to parents'  demands.

According to the secretary, this initiative of Gov. Luis Fortuño's  administration is aimed at ensuring Puerto Rican children can exercise their  right to "acquire a strong command of English."

Moreno Alonso said that at the small number of schools where the program has  already been instituted there are "waiting lists."

The education secretary also noted that most job openings on the U.S.  commonwealth require command of English as well as Spanish.

In his latest address to the legislature on April 24, Fortuño, who is up for  re-election in November, said his administration would take steps to more firmly  establish English-language instruction in the island's public school system.

"Starting next fiscal year, we'll begin introducing the comprehensive  Bilingual Generation program with a very clear goal: to ensure that in a period  of 10 years each and every child who graduates from high school in Puerto Rico  is perfectly bilingual, with full command of both Spanish and English," Fortuño  said.

But the chairman of the small Puerto Rican Independence Party, Fernando  Martin, told Efe the plan unveiled by Moreno Alonso was indicative of the  "ideological obsession" of the governing New Progressive Party, or PNP, which  favors U.S. statehood for the island.

A lawmaker with the main opposition Popular Democratic Party, Sen. Juan  Eugenio Hernandez Mayoral, said last month that exclusive instruction in English  could have a detrimental effect on Puerto Ricans' knowledge of Spanish.

He recalled that only 30 percent of Puerto Ricans speak English at a high  level, while the 2010 U.S. Census indicates that Spanish is the native tongue  for 96 percent of Puerto Rico's 3.9 million residents

English had been the language of instruction in Puerto Rican high schools  between 1900 and 1948.

Spanish and English are co-official languages of Puerto Rico, a U.S.  commonwealth since 1952.

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